Black Lives Matter in the Womb

Nearly 4years ago my daughter Anaia Naomi Tabor was born. But I knew long before her birthday, the power of her life. We saw the first sonogram at 6 weeks and we saw her forming body shaped in the most intricate way. I knew the power of her life because less than 3 years prior to her birth, we lost our first child to a miscarriage. Both were alive from the moment the seed penetrated the egg becoming a zygote that became an embryo, that became a fetus but only one made it outside of my wife’s womb. Yet both were alive. Why because . . .

1. Life Begins at Conception – Psalm 139:11-18

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.” Psalm 139:13-18 NIV

2. Every Life Bears God’s Image – Genesis 1:27

“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27 NIV

Every living human being is reflecting back to God an image of himself. He chose to make us in his image and likeness and that doesn’t just happen when we get born again but the spiritual DNA is there when we are conceived.

When my daughter was conceived, through my seed and my wife’s egg, our DNA was placed in her body and as soon as those first cells begin to multiply, she began reproducing our image. Today when you look at her, you can see she is our child. If I was on the on the Maury Povich show, they could forgo the test and proclaim, “You are the Father!”

And the same is true of God and us, we cannot deny that we have his image imprinted on us. We’re the only species that has a conscious, a spirit, soul and a body. We can form original ideas and create unlike any other species. We bear the image of God.

3. God Loves Every Life – John 3:16, Romans 5:8, John 15:12-13

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NIV

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”Romans 5:8 NIV

12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:12-13

His love is not simply spoken but it has been demonstrated.

So God loves . . .

The child that loses their life – their opportunity to pursue God and his purpose for their life

The mother who loses a child– and lives with the grief of the loss of the child they chose to terminate.

The father who loses a child – who may have paid for the abortion or who may have not had a say in the matter, because men don’t have a right to their children in the mother’s womb.

The sibling who loses a sibling – a playmate, a teacher, a model or menthe

The State of Abortion in America

Abortions was legalized in 1973 rose quickly topping the million a year mark in 1975 and hit an annual 1.5 million in 1980. They peaked at 1.6 million in 1990, but began dropping in subsequent years. After appearing to level off around 1.2 million in the mid 2000s, the most recent national reports shows the annual total back down to just over one million, and declining abortion rates and ratios show that this is not merely a statistical anomaly. National Right to Life now estimates, based on these data from the Guttmacher Institute and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), that the total number of abortions since 1973 has reached 58,586,256.

The State of Abortion in the Black Community

Why are we talking about abortion during Black History Month . . .because it disproportionately affects Black people. Today, I need to proclaim and our church needs to truly understand that “Black Lives Matter in the Womb”

The most dangerous place in America for a black person is not in the hood or in the streets or in a car being pulled over by a cop, the most dangerous place in America for a black person is in the womb of a black woman.

According to an anti-police brutality organization, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, 313 blacks were killed by “police, security guards and vigilantes” in 2013

In 2010, one of the most recent years for which statistics are available, 138,539 black babies were aborted.

The CDC reports that in 2010, a staggering 765,651 abortions were performed in the United States. Black women continue to have the highest abortion rate of any ethnic group, with a gruesome 483 abortions for every 1,000 live births.

The bottom line? I’ll say it again: 138,539 black babies, nearly one baby in three, were killed in the womb in 2010.

According to the CDC, between 2007 and 2010, innocent black babies were victimized in nearly 36 percent of the abortion deaths in the United States, though blacks represent only 12.8 percent of the population.

Some say the abortion capital of America is New York City. According to LifeSiteNews, the city’s Department of Health reported that in 2012, more black babies were aborted (31,328) than born (24,758). That’s 55.9 percent of black babies killed before birth. Blacks represented 42.4 percent of all abortions.

Number One Killer

What about cases of rape?

Unplanned

His mother graciously and rightfully carried him to term and placed him for adoption. I’m going to be honest, working at a pregnancy resource center, we see people every week who are thinking about having an abortion and many who work for us or with us have had one and all of them will vouch that an abortion doesn’t make the circumstances surrounding abortion go away. It just adds to the challenges the person has to experience.

The Strategy

The elimination of black lives through abortion is strategic similar to in the day of Moses.

Exodus 1:15-22 NIV – “The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, “When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?” The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

Pharaoh was strategically trying to eliminate all the Hebrew boys because of the impact they could have on their development of their people yet the midwives did their part to help him and Moses’ mother did her part to protected him by making sure he had a chance at life. You could say that she placed him for adoption. She was blessed to care for him in Pharaoh’s palace where he received his quality Egyptian education and later became the leader that led their people out of slavery.

Today one of the strategies that leads the abortion industry in our nation has been developed by Planned Parenthood. I’m not making a political statement, I am making a truthful statement. Planned Parenthood is the number one provider of abortions in America. They have strategically positioned themselves in minority communities

The strategy began years ago though the eugenics movement that was established to eliminate “lesser” races.

Is it possible that we may have aborted …

The next Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King

The doctor to cure AIDS or Cancer

The ecologist who could have created better irrigation in dry lands around the world.

The next President of the United States or Governor of Texas.

The next great preacher, teacher, lawyer, financial manager.

The next mother, father, sister, brother.

Application

Ephesians 6:12-18 NIV – “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (This is Spiritual). Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist (Get Informed), with the breastplate of righteousness in place (Get the Impact), and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one (Get Invested). Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” (Get Involved)